Forfar Athletic News 2018 onwards

[RateofKnots]

26 minutes ago, TheClosingArguement said:

And if he was any use he'd have scored twice as many goals. The amount of sitters he missed was infuriating. Never mind the amount of times he did the square root of f**k all. 

Never mind that, he has terrible facial hair, that alone means he shouldn't start.

[mo83]

I hope this works out for James Keatings,was delighted when we signed him but never seen the form he once reached and struggled to get game time due to injury's and a few other problem's.

[Jupiter Jazz]

1 hour ago, TheClosingArguement said:

And if he was any use he'd have scored twice as many goals. The amount of sitters he missed was infuriating. Never mind the amount of times he did the square root of f**k all. 

Can't recall him missing too many sitters, we weren't a team that created a lot of chances. McCluskey went months not contributing a thing, the likes of Crossan and Shepherd  were hopeless - nobody said a word. As said Aitken scored a decent amount and had most assists, it's a bit odd how he gets singled out.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Jupiter Jazz

[lwh]

Our attacking options of Aitken, McCluskey, Armour and Keatings is excellent for league two. Not hearing amazing things of Keatings recently but we’ve done an excellent job of keeping slater fit so hopefully can do the same with him.  

[RateofKnots]

55 minutes ago, Jupiter Jazz said:

Can't recall him missing too many sitters, we weren't a team that created a lot of chances. McCluskey went months not contributing a thing, the likes of Crossan and Shepherd  were hopeless - nobody said a word. As said Aitken scored a decent amount and had most assists, it's a bit odd how he gets singled out.

I'll disagree on Shepard, I've never heard a positive word said about him. Crossan is equally poor.

The thing with Aitken for me is that he never truly seems to be in control of the ball. He does score at a relatively reasonable rate, and the assists stat is impressive. I suppose the issue for me is that I'm judging him against players that have worn the shirt, rather than are wearing it now.

[lwh]

1 minute ago, RateofKnots said:

I'll disagree on Shepard, I've never heard a positive word said about him. Crossan is equally poor.

The thing with Aitken for me is that he never truly seems to be in control of the ball. He does score at a relatively reasonable rate, and the assists stat is impressive. I suppose the issue for me is that I'm judging him against players that have worn the shirt, rather than are wearing it now.

This is a good point. We’re in league 2, we need to get out of league 2. Aitken is a decent level league 2 striker, nothing more. We need to get promoted before we can build again and have better players

[Bridie Vision]

Keatings is an interesting signing, on paper he looks brilliant except for the major hip injuries. If he can be nursed like Slater we could have the next John Baird, however, I fully realise he could also be the next Steven Doris.

As for Matty, I'll always have a soft spot for him as he's the only player (other than Murray Mackintosh) to have come from our development side and actually have an okay career, playing for the first team on a regular basis.

Does anyone know if we'll have more of our squad for Saturday than we did on Tuesday? (Stef, Flanagan, Thomson etc.)

[fafc1885]

I’m in two minds about Keatings. Is he a decent scorer? Yes. Has he been injured for large periods of time over the last few years? Yes.

If he can stay fit, I’m hopeful he can be a goalscorer for us, however I worry he might be another Jamie Ness who plays a few games, gets injured and is missing for the rest of the season.

On Aitken, I do get the dislike for him, you can argue that he was second top scorer for us last season but he went missing for large periods of the season. He also doesn’t seem to have the body strength to hold off anyone or to win a header.

I admittedly liked Shepherd, he was good at pressing and chasing, but ultimately he isn’t a finisher and for a striker that was his downfall.

[lwh]

42 minutes ago, Bridie Vision said:

Keatings is an interesting signing, on paper he looks brilliant except for the major hip injuries. If he can be nursed like Slater we could have the next John Baird, however, I fully realise he could also be the next Steven Doris.

As for Matty, I'll always have a soft spot for him as he's the only player (other than Murray Mackintosh) to have come from our development side and actually have an okay career, playing for the first team on a regular basis.

Does anyone know if we'll have more of our squad for Saturday than we did on Tuesday? (Stef, Flanagan, Thomson etc.)

Thomson was on holiday on Tuesday, not sure about any others

[Loon From Outta Toon]

36 minutes ago, fafc1885 said:

I admittedly liked Shepherd, he was good at pressing and chasing, but ultimately he isn’t a finisher and for a striker that was his downfall.

This absolutely baffles me how anyone could of liked Shepherd as a player. He ran around aimlessly like a headless chicken up front whenever he played & very rarely got a reward. 
When he got in to the final third he didn’t know when to pass or shoot & also had no fight in either, used to go down to the minimalist touches. Although somehow he ended up with 6 goals, albeit 2 taps in & a couple of penalties, very rarely contributed at all in games.

On a side note I’d say we’ve majorly upgraded our strike force for this season, so expectations for more goals should be high, so on that basis we’ll finish with the least amount of goals in the league.

[Jupiter Jazz]

44 minutes ago, fafc1885 said:

On Aitken, I do get the dislike for him, you can argue that he was second top scorer for us last season but he went missing for large periods of the season. He also doesn’t seem to have the body strength to hold off anyone or to win a header.

Other than Slater - out of midfield and attack - who didn't go missing for large periods? 

[fafc1885]

15 minutes ago, Loon From Outta Toon said:

had no fight in either, used to go down to the minimalist touches.

You could say that about Aitken as well to be fair. 

I did feel Shepherd hassled the opposition instead of being a headless chicken. Was that because he had more movement than Aitken? Possibly, but that didn’t mean that I thought he was the answer to our problems, he definitely wasn’t as like I say, he isn’t a goalscorer either.

16 minutes ago, Jupiter Jazz said:

Other than Slater - out of midfield and attack - who didn't go missing for large periods? 

That is true and even Slater went missing for some periods, however as someone who was meant to be our leading striker, maybe that is why it is more noticeable and frustrating with Aitken.

[lwh]

There’s a trialist wearing no. 8 at cm in this second half who we need to sign. Looks excellent so far.

[lwh]

2 minutes ago, lwh said:

There’s a trialist wearing no. 8 at cm in this second half who we need to sign. Looks excellent so far.

22 and 14 have also been pretty impressive 

[RateofKnots]

32 minutes ago, lwh said:

22 and 14 have also been pretty impressive 

Anyone who could pass the ball to a team mate and keep hold of it for longer than 5 seconds would look impressive compared to Tuesday.

[lwh]

5 minutes ago, RateofKnots said:

Anyone who could pass the ball to a team mate and keep hold of it for longer than 5 seconds would look impressive compared to Tuesday.

Very very true, but it was better, particularly the second half, hopefully blowing off the cobwebs

[RateofKnots]

Just now, lwh said:

Very very true, but it was better, particularly the second half, hopefully blowing off the cobwebs

I'd have been very concerned if it had been worse, mostly because I'm not sure that's possible.

[Loon81]

22 and 14 have also been pretty impressive 

Any idea who the trialists were?

[lwh]

No but the 8 is pictured here.

[tbsouth]

Vast improvement on Tuesday, missed 2 great chances 1st half, badly missing Thomson and Stef.